183. CHUCK JONES: An animator’s advice

Chuck Jones (1912-2002) was an animation director responsible for some of the best films – animated or otherwise – ever made. He directed many classic Looney Tunes cartoons, where he helped shape the personalities of established characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig, and created many of his own characters including The Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Pepé Le Pew and Marvin the Martian.

Jones is one of my biggest influences and some of my happiest childhood memories revolve around his cartoons. Everyday after primary school, my brother, some cousins and I would walk to my grandparents home where we were looked after until our parents finished work. We would all watch Looney Tunes cartoons together and I remember my Grandma would laugh as much as the rest of us. She loved Bugs the most, especially when he dressed up as a woman and seduced Elmer or some other poor fool. My Grandma played a big role in my childhood and my happiest moments with her was when we watched cartoons together. She passed away when I was 15, and whenever I think of her, I think of Looney Tunes.

Even back then, I would have been 10 or 11, I was starting to pay attention to the animators and artists who were making these hilarious cartoons. I could predict who the director of the cartoon would be before their names appeared, and my brother or cousins never figured out how I was doing it. I would shout out ‘FRIZ FRELENG!” or “ROBERT McKIMSON!”. But I got most excited when I could shout “CHARLES M. JONES!” (I knew because I had memorised which animators worked with particular directors and Jones always used Ken Harris and Lloyd Vaughan). Jones’s cartoons were always my favourite – his poses were more dynamic, his character’s facial expressions more perfect, his cartoons just funnier to me.

This quote is taken from a video interview Jones did with The Archive of American Television and it’s certainly something I still need to remind myself. I often go down the Instagram rabbit hole of finding one great artist after another, constantly in awe of their work and comparing my stuff to theirs and coming to the obvious conclusion: “My work is total crap!” and “Why do I even bother?” But of course, that achieves nothing. I can only do the best that I can. Be the fastest pig I can be.

In the clip, Jones also recites a great quote that his art instructor would begin classes with, which reminds me of the Ira Glass quote I adapted awhile back: “All of you have one hundred thousand bad drawings in you. The sooner you get rid of them, the better it will be for everyone.” In his memoir, Chuck Amuck, Jones followed up the quote with: “This was not a discouraging statement to me, because I was already well into my third hundred thousand.”

Jones was a terrible student growing up. Seeing that his son showed a talent for art, Jones’s father pulled him out of school and enrolled him in the Chouinard Art Institute, which later became CalArts (it’s a total coincidence that in the first appearance of Ballet Boy, he was terrible at school and his father took him out to join the dance academy). Jones was not training to be an animator, and he “came out of art school during the Depression, dreaming the dreams that all worthy art students dream: that I would become an easel painter, consumptive and unrecognised, dying picturesquely at some incredible old age like thirty-seven”. That was initially proving to be true, with Jones forced to work as a janitor to earn money. Desperate for any art-related job, he found work at the Ub Iwerks animation studio – starting at the very bottom, working as a cell washer, before moving on to painter, in-betweener and then joining the Leon Schlesinger studio (which made the Looney Tunes cartoons) as an assistant animator in 1933. There he worked under legendary directors Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. He was promoted to animator and finally became a director in 1938. Jones’s early cartoons were very Disney-like, extremely soft and cute and it took him awhile to find his voice. He developed his irreverent sensibility and more angular style over the years with his best cartoons being made in the late 1940s and 1950s. After the Looney Tunes glory days, Jones worked on Tom and Jerry for MGM and made other notable cartoons including The Dot and The Line and Dr Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Jones received three Oscars for individual cartoons and was also awarded a Honorary Academy Award in 1996. You can see Robin Williams presenting him with the award in this clip.

It’s hard to single out a few, but some of my personal favourite Chuck Jones cartoons include Long-Haired Hare, with Bugs battling a opera singer dressed as the famous composer Leopold.Rabbit of Seville for the laugh-out-loud Bugs and Elmer haircut scene.Feed the Kitty for the hilarious bulldog Marc Antony and the greatest facial expressions ever drawn in a cartoon (which I poorly tried to ape in my comic). The meta Duck Amuck with the cruel animator Bugs messing with poor Daffy. And of course, my favourite and what many consider to be Jones’s masterpiece: One Froggy Evening, the ultimate parable about greed told through the story of a singing frog that will only sing for one man and no one else. Steven Spielberg called it “The Citizen Kane of the animated short”. Watch these scenes and try not to laugh, I dare you! Of course, it should be noted that Jones made these cartoons in collaboration with an incredible team of animators, musicians, voice artists, plus long-time writing partner Michael Maltese and legendary background artist Maurice Noble.

You have to remind yourself that these cartoons are 60 years old. And they still hold up! I guarantee you that if you show a kid a classic Chuck Jones cartoon, then show them a cartoon from 2015, they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. They would probably laugh MORE at the 1950s cartoon. I mean think about it, what other piece of entertainment could you say that about? I said this about Calvin and Hobbes and I’ll say it again for the work of Chuck Jones: great art is timeless. Just like my grandma used to laugh at these cartoons with me, I look forward to one day watching them with my grandchildren and laughing along too.

Beautiful piece, Gavin. Many of my friends are animators and I know the impact Chuck had on them as artists and human beings. Winning awards is always nice, but it doesn’t take long to realize competition between artists is so subjective, it’s rendered moot. Hope to see you at one of the book signings.

What’s more, actual successful creative professionals are warning newcomers not to make the mistake of doing things the old way. With assumptions like keeping up with the artistic joneses. Things like: believing they have to get 100K art degree to be competitive.

The secret to competition in the creative field is that the people who stand out are not the ten thousand illustrators who all vie for the same positions, making similar (if high quality) work, and struggling to each be “the top in their field”. The secret, much as the quote alludes to, is in playing to one’s own strength as much as possible. This does not mean it’s not hard work. Reaching your own potential is incredibly hard work. But the real competition is always with yourself. And when people play to their strengths, they stand out on their own in the field.

Hamilton, the world is far from being perfect. But it is changing. For the better. And the ‘poor’ choices as you call it is what makes the world better.
Being a faceless cog is not the only ‘career’ out there anymore.
In this new world, everything you say is heard. Try to make it worth someone’s time to listen.

Oh, but I disagree. This comic encourages anyone aspiring to a profession or pursuit to be the best that they possibly can and to work to the best of their creative and technical ability. How does that encourage anyone to make poor career choices?

Such an excellent comic. I can relate a lot with this comic. I remember when i was in school and we had this class, “programming 1”. Everyone was doing good with the class and I was sitting there, frustrated because i was not able to understand a single thing the teacher was saying. I started to cry. I am not a very sentimental person, but in that moment I felt weak and incapable. Then I realized that I can not expect to be good in everything and as this comic stated “I just have to be the fastest pig”. I seeked help; a lot of it. In the end I was able to pass the class.

But I digress. This brought tears to my eyes, so beautiful to see that “The trip of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” Many of us haver to fight demons to be true to ourselves, and to take that authentic self out into the world….

Kudos and bravo for this fine strip.

(I hope you also influence other comic strip authors to delve deeper, take some risks, expect more from their readership.)

Wow, Gavin, you are so timely yet again! That last line “creative work is never competitive” is just what need at the moment. I’ve been expanding my own creative activities lately, including learning to draw cartoons (!), and sometimes I look at what others are doing and think “oh, how could I ever be as good as them?” But its not about that, is it, its about being authentic to yourself and giving what gifts you have to world. Thanks for your gifts to us, too! I’d better go keep working on my first 100,000, or so now… 🙂

Funny story – I have a friend who started out as an intern at the studio who did Grinch Who Stole Christmas. One of his first jobs was to take notes at the meetings between Theodor Geisul and Chuck Jones. They would meet at a restaurant (I forget which one) and have bullshot after bullshot (vodka and beef bullion) until the notes didn’t make sense anymore.

I really love this one Gav! Like you, Me and my sister also tried to guess which director would appear at the end of the show when we were kids too (we were watching Tom and Jerry and animes mostly tho). We even kept count. It was really fun.

I also have a dream of becoming an animator someday, but I only realized it right after I graduated from my first degree (which is not really related in any way with animation). I have plans on taking up an animation course next year after I scrounge up some tuition money from my current job.

Your works continue give me inspiration, Gav. Keep up the great job! 🙂

Your writeup is as inspiring as this comic strip Gav. I often compare my work with writers whom I come across on Twitter too, and keep wondering whether I will ever be as good as them. But the key is to be better than what you were yesterday, not anyone else.

As we stick to what we love doing, the credit will go to the man in the arena (us). Lovely strip Gav 🙂

Still trolling? What’s up with you man? Let’s get this clear for you: creative work is NOT a competitive thing. That’s the beauty of it.

Sports, by definition, ARE competitive.
Sales are competitive.
Even medicine is competitive. You need to be the best among others to get a chance at this fields.

But CREATIVE work is about finding what’s the best version you have of your work to give it to the world. If you try to compare Da Vinci vs Dalí, you would be lost. You cannot decide who is better.
If you look back to Oscar Wilde or V. Van Gogh, they both died in bankrupcy, and yet, their work is among the more appreciated of their fields, not because they are dead, but because they were awesome in their own way.

I really loved your panels. Especially the one where the ballet guy striking multiple postures in a circle. The message! lovely. I think its always a dilemma who does anything creative. We want to express ourselves, but due to many reason feel that there are better people out there. However, what I can express and create- at whichever level of quality it stands- is my unique thing. Once I know I am not always creating for an audience, but for myself too, I think its easy to go ahead.

Beautiful thought illustrated in a even more Beautiful way. Great work as always , Gavin. More often than not in today’s world, the measure of an person’s creativity is determined by comparing his/her work with others; which I feel is unfair. Every individual is creative in their own special way and when we compare one person’s creative work with another with another, it’s not exactly their work that we are comparing but it’s our perception about their work that’s being compared. IMHO, anyone who dedicates their heart and soul to any form of creative pursuits, should never fall into the trap of competitive comparison. If what you create gives you a sense of fulfilment and makes you feel content, then that creation is your Masterpiece, and if the world does not appreciate it, maybe it’s because the World does not have the eyes for it.

Great one, as always! So sweet, and nice to see our favorite dancing lad back. The panel where he looks up with big eyes, and especially the backdrops of him frolicking with his dog are beautifully Jones-esque. Thanks for the reminder that creative work is not competitive.

Never stop being you, your work is so profound and touching. I tear up nearly every time I encounter it. My heartfelt appreciation for your particular and unique creative genius and thank you for sharing it with us.

Ok, I understand the main point of this quote- art is not a competition, comparing yourself to others is not the way to go.
But the fact that Chuck got into an art school at 15 years old is insane and proves the amount of hard work and talent he must’ve been putting in to achieve it. So this kind of keeps the point, but reverses the arrow- he’s insanely incredible, but we shouldn’t be comparing ourselves to him, because art isn’t competitive ;).

Lovely comic, thanks mucho… and any chance that this one may be turned into a canvas print. I would love for my two and a half year old daughter to grow up with this comic on her wall.
thanks,
Gavin Thomas

I had the exact same feelings of insecurity reading your comic as you described. Then, I saw who it was by and realised “oh my God, I am worthy because I drew this!”. Only to then fall further into the depths of unworthiness when I realised you’re a completely different Gavin. Still, I’m too busy now to give up so I’ll just have to do my best to soak up your/Chuck’s wisdom. You are a star Gavin (that’s for you not me).

Hi Gavin,
I love your work so much. Someone sent me this one today as a reminder because I’m feeling really down about my work lately (as well as many other things). It helped.
My question is, do you contact the author of these quotes you work with, like above, to get clearance?

“It hurts to let go. Sometimes it seems the harder you try to hold on to something or someone the more it wants to get away. You feel like some kind of criminal for having felt, for having wanted. For having wanted to be wanted. It confuses you, because you think that your feelings were wrong and it makes you feel so small because it’s so hard to keep it inside when you let it out and it doesn’t coma back. You’re left so alone that you can’t explain. Damn, there’s nothing like that, is there? I’ve been there and you have too. You’re nodding your head.”

Long as you have a 4K-ready TV that’s suitable with HDCP 2.2 after that the Android TV would certainly be an excellent selection for appreciating Ultra-HD video clips, specifically if you’re a participant of both Amazon Prime and also Netflix.